


Is It Me Or Us

by killingmonsterswritingthings



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Angst, Biting, M/M, Pining, Sharing a Bed, Vampires, Werewolves, side polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-22 04:53:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16591187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killingmonsterswritingthings/pseuds/killingmonsterswritingthings
Summary: Mingyu and Jihoon are a vampire and a werewolf living together. Two opposite forces who get along surprisingly well. Except, of course, Mingyu has to ruin it by developing feelings.





	Is It Me Or Us

**Author's Note:**

> this started by me _projecting_ , as usual, like the mess that i am, and ended up longer than i thought and probably unnecessarily dramatic but here we are.
> 
> as usual, please let me know if i need to add any more additional tags.

The apartment is quiet when Mingyu sticks his head out of his room.

“Hyung?” he calls. He knows Jihoon has to be home, because Jihoon almost never goes anywhere, and also Mingyu can smell him.

“What?” Jihoon calls back a moment later.

“I want chocolate. Do we have chocolate?”

There’s a sigh, then a scraping sound as Jihoon pushes back his chair in his room and a moment later the door to his room opens. “Did you actually _check_?” Jihoon asks, obviously disgruntled at having been disturbed in his work.

“Well,” Mingyu grins, innocently, “I ran out, and I know you hide the rest from me, so…”

“I don’t hide it, I _ration_ it, because you have no self-control,” Jihoon says. “Plus, you can’t have a lot of chocolate. And again, you have no self-control.”

Mingyu pouts a little now. “I have plenty self-control.”

Jihoon snorts but doesn’t say anything else, instead rolling his eyes and walking towards the kitchen. Mingyu trails after him, triumphant. Despite his grumbling it’s sometimes so _easy_ to get what he wants from Jihoon.

Jihoon opens one of the cabinets and digs around between some bags of pasta and then pulls out a bar of chocolate from behind the cans of dog food. Mingyu wrinkles his nose and Jihoon catches his expression as he turns around, the corner of his mouth quirking up.

“Yeah, I knew you weren’t going to look there and touch those,” he says, ripping open the plastic and breaking off a piece of chocolate. “Even when you’re cleaning.” Mingyu accepts it with the knowledge that if he was to reach out and try and get another on his own Jihoon would slap his hand away and scratch him for good measure. Like a fucking cat.

“Thanks,” he says.

“Guess now I’m going to have to look for a new hiding spot though, since you’d probably kill for chocolate…”

Mingyu swallows and glares. “I resent that accusation.” He’s never killed anyone, except during the unfortunate squirrel incident when he was really fucking hungry and hadn’t met Jihoon yet. It doesn’t take long for him to change his expression to puppy eyes though. “Can I have more?”

Jihoon sighs but hands him another piece of chocolate, still holding onto the bar. “One more.” He says. “And don’t you have a job tonight you have to get ready for, anyway?”

“Yup,” Mingyu says and grins, “but I’m a vampire, so I can eat as much chocolate as I want.” He pops the second piece into his mouth, as Jihoon rolls his eyes.

It’s not even true. Vampires get sick if they eat too much chocolate – they get sick if they eat too much human food in general, but chocolate is the worst. Werewolves have the same reaction to it, which both sides hate. Shared weaknesses are what the radical supernatural groups among them detest the most.

Mingyu, still chewing, pats his pocket to make sure he has his phone and then straightens up. “Guess I gotta leave and make some money so you don’t withhold chocolate from me for not paying my share of the rent.”

“Take care!” Jihoon calls after him and Mingyu turns back to grin at him. “Be back at dawn!”

 

 

The funny thing about them is, everyone always gets them wrong.

They think Mingyu with his shaggy hair and strong teeth and general puppy behavior is the werewolf. They think Jihoon with his fair skin and his sharp smile and his preference for working at night is the vampire.

Except Jihoon works at night because that's when he's most productive – and also to keep Mingyu out of trouble. And Mingyu's incisors turn from wolfish to long and sharp whenever he's hungry.

They've been roommates for almost two years, and it works.

Mingyu mostly answered the ad because he really needed a roommate, and regular humans tend to be intimidated by him, even when he doesn't disclose that he needs to drink blood to survive.

He's just too big and too loud and they probably sense _something_ off about him, even when they can't tell what it is. Evolution is a smart lady.

The flipside? He somehow managed to become a model. (After working the night shift at a gas station for a couple of years.)

His agency knows he’s a vampire. They didn’t know when they hired him. He was out walking on a cloudy day with Wonwoo and some agent picked him up off the street right there. He’s just that good.

Of course he told them before signing a contract, because he’s honest to a fault and didn’t want to get in trouble. He was secretly afraid they would put him right back on the street when they found out his looks weren’t “natural”, but no such thing happened, and he’s been getting more and more jobs ever since.

Jihoon is a producer, although _m_ _usician_ is probably the better word. Mingyu knows he also sings. He himself tried his hand at a rapping career once but somehow, the underground circuit is very firmly in werewolf hands, and they’re territorial – go figure. It’s okay though, because Mingyu somehow always felt too soft for it, anyway.

Not that Jihoon isn’t soft, sometimes, but he’s more driven, and somehow has more steel in his soul than Mingyu has in his entire body. Which isn’t a bad thing – they complement each other well.

It’s what makes their roommate arrangement work so nicely.

 

 

Mingyu comes home from the photoshoot well before dawn. It was just a few pictures for an ad campaign for wrist watches, but his agency says they have a music video lined up for him next and there may even be Gucci in his future.

He tries to be as quiet as possible, because while Jihoon keeps odd hours, he’s usually asleep by six. There’s no actual reason for him to work until dawn since Mingyu is much better at managing himself by now – it’s been years, thank you very much – but it doesn’t seem to matter how much he tries to make Jihoon keep healthier hours, they always seem to be awake at the same time.

Not that Mingyu actually has to sleep, that biological need also vanished after he was turned, but he likes doing it anyway. He’ll usually sleep during the midday to escape the worst of the light and the heat.

Turns out Jihoon is not asleep yet however, and he’s even sitting in the living room when Mingyu comes in, which is very uncharacteristic for him. He has his headphones on but a quick look at his laptop screen reveals that he’s not working on anything but rather watching some girl group performance video. He pulls his headphones down when he notices Mingyu entering and pauses the video.

“Done already?”

Mingyu nods and plops down next to him on the sofa. “I was a model citizen once again,” he says, laughing at his own pun. He glances at Jihoon’s screen again. “Work or play?”

“Both,” Jihoon says noncommittally. “You know them?”

“That’s that girl group that just debuted, right?” Mingyu frowns a little, trying to remember the name. “House of Aura?”

“Yeah.” Jihoon shifts so he can put the Laptop onto their coffee table and disconnects his headphones before starting the video from the beginning. It’s nice. The concept is a little darker than what Mingyu has recently seen from girl groups, and two of the girls have very deep, heavy voices.

“I like them,” he says. He’s going to have to look into them more later, he caught a bit of the buzz around their debut two months ago but not enough to actually learn their names.

“Their team asked me to produce a few songs for their next comeback,” Jihoon says and leans back, grinning at Mingyu.

And suddenly all Mingyu can think about is his blinding smile, and the way their thighs press together on the narrow couch, and Jihoon’s foot brushing against his when he taps it to the beat.

“That’s great,” he chokes out. He goes very still, deliberately, because he knows from experience that that makes it better, and stops breathing. “Do they have a concept already?”

Jihoon’s grin has vanished and he’s eyeing him a little warily, but he seems happy to be answering questions about the work. “Something more natural than this,” he says, motioning at the Laptop. “Something that will make summer fun for people, apparently.”

“Ohhh, they’re going for the summer bop,” Mingyu says and grins a little, except he feels his fangs lengthen when he does. Nope. Too much. He stands abruptly. “Sorry, I gotta go take a shower. They put some weird shit in my hair at the shoot and I hate the smell.”

The moment the bathroom door closes behind him he lets his head drop against the tiles next to it. What a spectacular idiot he is.

 

Maybe he should say that their roommate arrangement _had_ _been_ working. It worked. He's not so sure anymore now. And of course it's all his fault – because he can't even coexist with another supernatural being without fucking it up.

The thing about Jihoon is that he's not the same as Mingyu. He seems completely unassuming, blending in seamlessly, perfectly normal – not supernatural – to other humans. Even his gruffness gets attributed to him just being grumpy and liking to be in control. Maybe it's because he's so small.

Except of course Mingyu can smell it on him. The wolf.

It had always struck him as odd that it didn't bother him. Even when they first met, Jihoon smelled sweet to him, and it had never been that way with other wolves before. It made moving in together that much easier, and a lot more pleasant.

Except where it was a blessing in the beginning, it's a problem now.

 

When Mingyu first had the thought that he wanted to bite Jihoon he marked it up to being hungry. It happens, he goes a day too long without feeding and even his scrawny roommate starts looking like a snack.

But then he picked up Jihoon from dance practice one evening and he was early, so he hung out at the studio while Soonyoung and Minghao and Jihoon finished up and the picture of Jihoon sweating, going through the same steps over and over again set his almost non-existent heartbeat practically _racing_. He had fed earlier that night, so that wasn't it.

And then Jihoon spotted and smiled at him and Mingyu was flooded with this fondness that was usually reserved for babies and puppies and he suddenly imagined picking him up and swinging him around after a successful dance performance and- Fuck.

He had a crush on his roommate.

 

 

He turns on the water and sticks his face into the spray like it’ll actually succeed in drowning him. It won’t. He hasn’t taken a breath in about five minutes, and he’s fine, because he’s a fucking vampire and he has all eternity to ponder how much he’s fucked up.

 

When he gets back to his room, there’s a glass of blood sitting on his desk.

He knows how much Jihoon hates handling his blood reserves. He drinks it, even though he wasn’t technically hungry, and fights back a smile and the wave of sadness blooming in his chest. Maybe this will tide him over while he figures out what the fuck this actually means, for him. For them.

 

* * *

 

 

It does not, in fact, tide him over.

Two days later he wakes up to Soonyoung and Jihoon practicing in the living room. He knows they’re out there the moment he opens his eyes because Soonyoung smells distinctive for a human and they’re both breathing more heavily than usual and their rhythmic footsteps betray repetitive dance moves.

He groans and rolls over to try and go back to sleep, but of course his vampire biology decides to betray him. Plus, he’s too curious. There are no performances planned in the near future that would warrant crunch-time; at home practice. So it’s probably an impromptu thing. For _fun_.

Curiosity and a tinge of boredom finally win out and he drags himself out of bed, pulls on some sweatpants and wanders into the living room. He just catches the tail end of whatever performance Soonyoung is running Jihoon through.

“Good morning,” he announces to both of them, quickly, before he can take in their appearance or pace of their heart or state of dress consciously.

Jihoon looks up. “Morning,” he says, automatically.

“It’s 3pm,” Soonyoung says and sounds entirely unimpressed. He’s known the both of them for too long to put up with their bullshit, or be weirded out by their non-human lifestyle.

“Good afternoon, then,” Mingyu says. “Couldn’t you have at least brought Minghao, too?”

“It’s 3pm,” Soonyoung says, again.

“What?” Mingyu shrugs. “It’s not like he’d _die_.” Sunlight might be uncomfortable as fuck, but against popular belief vampires don’t burn unless exposed for hours at a time. Plus it’s overcast outside, and Mingyu could really use some support.

“Well, he doesn’t have to be here,” Jihoon says, wiping sweat of his face with the bottom of his t-shirt, “Soonyoungie is doing the choreography for the song I’m making for House of Aura so we’re seeing if it all fits together.”

Mingyu can only stare. Jihoon has dropped his shirt again, thankfully, but the motion was enough to draw Mingyu’s eyes and now he can’t stop _looking_.

He can clearly see the pulse on Jihoon's neck, following the vein down to his chest where his heartbeat is covered by his shirt, but still both audible and visible. He swallows. The feeling of wanting to sink his teeth in and suck is overwhelming.

“Have you eaten recently?” Soonyoung asks, shaking him out of his stupor. “Your pupils are like… huge. And they’ve got that reddish glint going on.”

“Yeah,” Mingyu says and clears his throat. “I’m uh… gonna go have breakfast.”

He disappears into the kitchen faster than the situation actually warrants, hearing Soonyoung sputter behind him, and pours himself a small glass of A negative. Usually he doesn’t drink more often than once a week, but that was before he wanted to bite his fucking roommate.

“Maybe it’s a growth spurt,” he hears Soonyoung say.

“Please don’t jinx it and make him get even taller,” Jihoon says.

“I’m like thirty years old! I’ve been dead for ten years! I’m not getting any taller,” Mingyu shouts back, mostly for Soonyoung’s benefit, Jihoon would hear him without him having to raise his voice.

“You’re not dead, don’t be dramatic,” Jihoon replies. It’s not technically wrong.

He sighs deeply and downs his blood before moving on to cereal. (He doesn’t mix the two, like Vernon does, he’s not a heathen.) Unbelievable that he has to deal with this before even having breakfast. There’s no reason that the two of them have to do this here, now, and especially this intensely. He’s pretty sure that’s not how the choreographing process for idols works. Plus the song isn’t even done yet.

He can’t really criticize their creative process though.

Mostly he’s just pissed he can’t even be thirsty in peace.

 

“You just haven’t gotten laid recently,” Minghao says later, after Mingyu finally gave in and called him and Wonwoo to come over. Jihoon and Soonyoung left to get dinner, thankfully, otherwise Mingyu wouldn’t dare talk about this out loud in fear of being overheard. Several beings with superhuman hearing in one household don’t make for a lot of privacy.

“It’s not like I had sex regularly when I first moved in, and I didn’t have this problem then,” Mingyu says and flops down on his bed.

“So what you’re saying is you’re falling in love with your best friend slash roommate,” Wonwoo says.

Mingyu groans. “First of all, he’s not my best friend. You are.” He motions at the two of them. “Second of all: No.”

“Well,” Minghao says, swaying the wine glass in his hand – half B positive, half actual wine, “you just admitted you don’t think it’s just because you’re horny, so.”

“Fuck you,” Mingyu says. He’s aware it’s not particularly witty, but he doesn’t have a good retort, mostly because Minghao’s _right_.

“He’s just so good,” he says and once he’s started, he’s helpless and unable to stop. “He works so hard, and hides the chocolate so I can’t eat it all at once, and he comes back with a new hair color like… once a month. And his teeth are so cute. He’s so cute, but also so _hot_ when he really gets into something. And so tiny. I can fit my hands around his waist, did you know that?”

“You can fit your hands around my waist, too,” Minghao says after taking a sip from his wine, completely unperturbed.

“Yeah but you’re not human,” Mingyu says.

“Neither is he. Not fully, at least.”

They’re quiet for a moment before Wonwoo says: “You really got it bad, huh? You just called his teeth cute.”

Mingyu groans and buries his face in his pillow.

 

* * *

 

 

The worst moments aren't even when Jihoon is all dressed up for an event, or in one of his pretty costumes for a dance performance that Soonyoung talked him into. No, it’s when Mingyu comes out into the living room to find him sitting on the couch watching Digimon and eating ramen, his hair still wet from a shower.

“No work today?” Mingyu asks, standing in the doorway.

Jihoon shakes his head. “Nah, I got the rough version of the song turned in and there was no studio space for the kids until next week.”

Mingyu has to smile about the fact that he calls House of Aura kids. He’s not that old, either, even for a werewolf he’s pretty young. (Still older than Mingyu, though.)

“I can’t believe the big Lee Jihoon is taking a break,” Mingyu says dramatically and finally detaches from the door, lest Jihoon thinks he’s being even weirder than usual.

Jihoon snorts and moves his legs so there’s space for Mingyu to sit. Mingyu throws himself onto the couch and immediately makes a grab for Jihoon’s ramen.

“Excuse me?” Jihoon tries to hold it out of his reach. “What’s the magic word?”

“Gimme,” Mingyu says and, with his much longer arms, takes the bowl out of Jihoon’s hands.

“I hate you,” Jihoon says, completely stone-faced. Mingyu just grins at him while he slurps the noodles and then hands the bowl back.

“Ahh, thanks.”

“You’re a fucking menace.” Jihoon accepts the bowl back and starts shoveling ramen into his mouth like Mingyu is going to eat it all before he does. “At least you remembered your manners at the end there.”

“What are we watching?” Mingyu asks.

Jihoon nudges at the Laptop on the coffee table with his foot so Mingyu can see, too. “Frontier,” he says and then unpauses the episode. He swings his bare legs around and throws them over Mingyu's. And Mingyu... tries really hard not to start sweating – or worse, letting his fangs come out again.

At least his suffering doesn’t seem evident to Jihoon, who’s still happily munching on his food and watching whatever the characters are doing on screen. Mingyu wouldn’t be able to repeat a single plot point or line of dialogue right now. Instead he’s hyper-aware of Jihoon’s legs on his, and finds himself staring at his profile. The slope of his nose, the sharp curve of his jaw. The way his hair is starting to dry, the latest pink dye-job already two months back and severely washed out. It’s horribly endearing.

Jihoon pulls Mingyu out of his stupor by handing the bowl back to him, without even looking at him. Mingyu takes it and finishes off the ramen, because he can hardly say no, and it’s the perfect amount not to upset his stomach. Plus it gives him something to do.

And if he keeps stealing glances at Jihoon, no one has to know.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s a week later when Jihoon asks him: “You wanna go grab some dinner?”

Mingyu doesn’t look up from the rhythm game on his phone where he’s lazily sprawled over the entire length of the couch. “Human dinner or one of those weird supernatural bars?” He knows he shouldn’t call them weird, and they’re designed to make them feel safe and give them somewhere to socialize that’s not houses with blackout curtains, but the vibe in those places always feels kind of predatory to Mingyu.

“Human dinner,” Jihoon says, and when Mingyu looks up for a moment he catches him wiggling the wallet in his hand to indicate that he’s paying.

“Sure.” He finishes the song he’s on and then pockets his phone and gets up.

It’s almost 1am, a little late for Jihoon to be having dinner, but Mingyu learned long ago not to judge his sleeping and eating habits (at least not too harshly) as long as he’s sleeping and eating at all.

They wander the streets for a while, debating what to eat, and Jihoon argues against lamb skewers because Mingyu “already had a bunch of people food today, and any more meat is going to make you feel bad”. And finally Mingyu gets tired of arguing, so they agree on falafel.

It’s still warm outside despite the late hour – ah, summer and two beings who don’t get cold easily – so they end up at a street vendor and then sit on a bench in a nearby park with their food.

“How’s work?” Jihoon asks. “You haven’t been to a shoot in a few days.”

Mingyu shrugs and licks sauce off his lip. “Yeah, I only had a couple small things the past few weeks. Got a music video shoot next month though.” He tries not to be too excited about it, they might still change their mind.

But Jihoon smiles so fucking bright. “Holy shit, that’s great!”

Mingyu ducks his head a little. “And,” he adds, because damn if validation and praise from Jihoon doesn’t feel nice, “my agency said… if we play our cards right… I might get a shoot with Gucci.”

“ _What_?!” Jihoon almost shrieks. “Shut up!” Someone yells nearby, but Mingyu is just looking at Jihoon, who in turn is staring at him with the widest eyes. “Say that again.”

“Gucci might be interested in me,” Mingyu half-whispers. It’s not official yet, much much less than the video shoot, which at least has an _offer_ already. It’s just whispers, something his agent heard from someone else who knows a Gucci rep in passing.

“Damn, Gyu,” Jihoon says. “You’re going to take the world by storm.”

Mingyu can feel himself blushing, and it should be physically impossible but yep, his face is definitely heating up. He’s suddenly glad for the late hour. And the fact that Jihoon’s vision isn’t better than that of the average human.

“It’s not set in stone yet,” he hurries to say. “It’s just a possibility...”

“They’ll snatch you up sooner or later,” Jihoon says, and he sounds so _sure_. “They’d be stupid not to.”

“Thanks,” Mingyu mumbles.

They sit next to each other in amicable silence after that, finishing their food, and Mingyu looks at the sky and the filling moon while his heartbeat returns to a steady 10 bpm from the rush of 50. There’s no stars to see, light pollution and all, but he imagines them up there and smiles.

This is the kind of moment Mingyu wants to live in forever.

Unfortunately, the world moves on even for immortals.

 

* * *

 

 

The full moon arrives a week later, and while Jihoon takes suppressors during the duration of the 48 hours surrounding it, Mingyu still checks on him every once in a while whenever it rolls around. The first time he peeked into the room tonight, Jihoon was pacing, stressed out and anxious despite the meds, so Mingyu got him another pill and some snickers, because everyone loves snickers. When he checks on him the second time, Jihoon is curled up on his bed, sleeping, tail and ears twitching a little in his sleep.

The few days after a full moon are the only time in a month when Jihoon sleeps more than five hours a night. Mingyu will find him curled up on the sofa when he comes home from work, or get a peek at him in his room, bent over his desk with his head resting on his arms.

It’s rare however that Mingyu is startled out of a dead sleep – equally rare for him – at 2pm by Jihoon climbing into his bed. It takes him a moment to wake up enough to form words. “Mhm?” he makes. “Jihoonie?” Jihoon paps his side. “You okay?”

He doesn’t get more than a hum for an answer but then Jihoon is curling up against him and nods against his chest. Mingyu sighs and wraps his arms around him, too sleepy to think much about it.

When Mingyu wakes up the next time, and there’s a weight on his chest. He blinks his eyes open to see a familiar blond mop of hair just under his nose.

Fuck.

He moves his head just slightly so he can catch the display of the alarm clock on his night stands. It’s five. He suppresses a groan and settles back into the pillow. He’s afraid to move any more than that though, because Jihoon is sound asleep, and waking him will incur wrath. Of two kinds.

First, for having woken him in the first place. And second for not having an explanation for how he ended up in Mingyu’s bed.

So Mingyu just lays there and thinks about how royally fucked this situation is. He hates it. And also kind of loves it. Jihoon is warm and soft, and Mingyu rarely sees him unguarded like this, let alone asleep. At least not close up.

It’s so hard not to touch Jihoon’s ears. His tail has disappeared by now, but the two light brown furry ears are still there atop his head. Mingyu has only touched them once before, and he knows better than to try now, because that was the one time Jihoon came close to properly losing his temper with him. Wolves just don’t like their ears touched. Mingyu has to and can respect that, no matter how soft they are.

Mingyu’s heart is beating hard against his ribcage, and that means something. His pulse is usually at a couple beats per minute, almost undetectable. He tries not to breathe, because the movement might make it more likely that Jihoon will wake up, but it gets uncomfortable after a while.

Jihoon stirs a little in his sleep, letting out a little snuffle, and his ears twitch. Then his nose twitches.

And then he’s suddenly sitting up, looking around wildly, before Mingyu even has time to properly prepare himself for him waking up.

“Where am I?”

Mingyu stares for a moment, shocked by the sudden alertness. “Uh,” he makes, “my bed?”

Jihoon’s head whips around and now he’s looking at him, his ears flat against his head. “What?!” The sharpness in his voice stings, even though Mingyu should have expected it.

“It’s okay,” he says, trying to sound soothing, “I know the full moon’s rough on you. You just… wandered in here and I didn’t…” _Didn’t know what to do. Didn’t have the heart to throw you out._

Jihoon groans. “Ugh… Sorry, I…” He leaves the sentence unfinished and instead slides off the bed and out of the door before Mingyu can say anything else – or, god forbid, reach out for him.

 

He lies in bed and waits. Waits while the shower turns on two doors over, waits when he hears the bathroom door open again. Waits when the fridge gets opened once, twice, three times. Then finally he gets up, because once Jihoon gets cereal and retreats back to his room, it’ll be too late.

He slinks towards the kitchen himself and then hovers in the doorway, hesitating. Jihoon is pouring milk over his cereal, ears still out and drooping. He has to know Mingyu is there.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Mingyu asks. He knows Jihoon doesn’t, but _he_ really needs to talk about it, and he has to at least try.

For one long, agonizing moment Jihoon doesn’t say anything. He puts the milk back into the fridge and grabs a spoon. Then he turns around. “Not really,” he says.

“Come on,” Mingyu says. “It’s not a big deal, right? It’s not like I minded, either. It’s okay.”

Jihoon looks at him, unhappily. “It’s really not,” he says and then steps past him. Mingyu lets him go.

For some reason it feels like he’s the one who messed up, when neither of them actually did.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s awkward for a week, almost two, but then things return to normal. Or as close to normal as possible. They still watch Anime together, have lunch together when it works out. Mingyu does the dishes, Jihoon dries them (reluctantly). But something still seems off, and Mingyu can’t quite tell what it is. Maybe it’s just him, with the way he’s over-thinking and reading into everything. But his senses can’t really fail him, and even Minghao says that Jihoon smells different when he comes over one night.

 

 

The next full moon, Jihoon stays with Soonyoung.

Mingyu stands in front of the note he found on their small blackboard in the kitchen when he woke up and he is intensely, fiercely angry. Not even jealous, because that’s not fair to Soonyoung. But it hurts, and he feels like something broke that wasn’t broken before.

Or maybe Jihoon decided to completely cut a fraying tie that Mingyu didn’t know was in danger of being severed.

He sits at the table with betrayal pulsing in his chest, his phone in his hand, and he has to will himself to calm down enough so his text won’t sound angry. There’s no rational reason to be angry. Jihoon’s free to stay with whomever he wants, especially during a time as fragile as the full moon, and there was never an actual agreement that Mingyu would take care of him during it. Actually, when they first moved in, Jihoon told him he could leave during it in case it made Mingyu uncomfortable.

Trying to be less angry just makes Mingyu sad. Finally he decides to text Jihoon, because he has to know if this is because of what happened.

 **Mingyu, 17:23**  
hyung did i do something wrong?

 **Jihoon, 17:31**  
no  
don’t worry about it, i’ll be back on tuesday

And well, that’s obviously a lie. Mingyu doesn’t doubt he will be back, because he lives here, for god’s sake, but the simple No is anything but reassuring.

He picks himself up after that and slouches into his room to burrow under his covers in the dark and live the rest of his eternal life as a vampire burrito.

It takes him about five minutes to realise that that’s not realistic.

He scrolls right past the group chat in his phone, hovers over his texts with Wonwoo for a second but Wonwoo isn’t even in Seoul at the moment and Mingyu really needs someone right now. He’ll text him later.

His final choice is Minghao, of course.

 

 **Mingyu, 17:3** **7**  
can you come over?  
jihoons staying with soonyoung and idk if its my fault

 **Minghao, 17:42**  
i’ll be right there  
i’m bringing jisoo

 **Mingyu, 17:44**  
wait were you guys on a date?  
don’t interrupt that for me!!!

 

Minghao doesn’t even grace that with an answer and after about ten minutes Mingyu has to accept that he’ll have to just deal with the extra guilt. He already feels bad, so some more can’t hurt (too badly).

He does get up after a few minutes to shower, because sometimes that makes him feel better and he didn’t do it after he got home from work in the morning since Jihoon was asleep and the shower runs loud as fuck.

When the two of them arrive twenty minutes later, Mingyu opens the door to them in his sweatpants and nothing else.

Minghao rolls his eyes at him. “Would it kill you to put on a shirt?” he asks.

“And be upstaged by you two rubbing your happiness in my face? No thanks.”

“I come bearing valuable insight and advice.” Joshua raises the two wine bottles he’s carrying. They must have stopped at a store on the way.

Mingyu sighs and pushes the door open to let them in. Joshua knows he can’t say no to wine, and it’d be rude to let them stand outside when he invited them over. He even puts on a shirt, because Minghao asked so nicely.

The two of them insist on putting on some chill-out playlist and dimming the lights in the living room. They turn on and plug in all the fairy lights Mingyu bought over the years. He just lets them basically rearrange his living room, while he sits on the sofa and clutches a pillow.

Finally Minghao sits down next to him and Joshua hands him a wine glass before he settles down on the floor. Mingyu takes a big gulp.

“I can’t believe he’d just dip on you like that,” Minghao says and Mingyu can’t even fault him for diving right into the topic.

“I like… specifically asked him if I did something wrong,” Mingyu says and unlocks his phone with the hand that isn’t currently holding a wine glass. He shows them the texts.

Joshua whistles sympathetically. “Ouch.”

“What did I _do_?” Mingyu whines. “This No seems like a big fat lie, but if he won’t tell me what I did, I can’t apologize and do better. He came into my bed during the full moon and then he freaked out about it and I tried to talk to him but he shut down and now he can’t be here anymore?”

Minghao grimaces. “Yeah, that’s on him, not you. If he doesn’t tell you what’s wrong even after you tried, that’s not your fault.”

“Sounds like gay panic,” Joshua muses. “Except he’s been very gay for like a decade.”

Minghao kicks him in the shin and Mingyu only pouts and takes another swig of wine before putting down the glass. He can’t even be mad about the comment. Minghao hands him a pillow from the couch so he has something else to hold onto.

“Maybe he’s not lying,” Minghao says after a moment. “Maybe he just can’t explain himself.”

“Seems more likely, yeah,” Joshua adds. “He’s not the kind of person to avoid confrontation, right? We all remember the big bread fight of 2016. But if he feels like he’s in the wrong and it’s not something he can easily explain, he shuts down.”

Mingyu groans and presses his face into the pillow. “I hate him.” It comes out muffled.

“You don’t mean that,” Joshua and Minghao say in unison.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t.

Life is hard when all your friends are dating each other. Life is even harder when you’re pining after your roommate and he seems to have found some new resentment for you.

Mingyu groans and raises his head from his pillow prison. “How do you guys make it work?” he asks.

Minghao and Joshua share a look.

“Do you mean like… relationships in general or our relationship in particular?” Minghao asks.

“Because those two are very different cans of worms,” Joshua adds.

Mingyu just frowns at them.

Joshua sighs. “You probably don’t want to hear this, but the key really is communication.”

He’s right, Mingyu didn’t want to hear that. Jihoon and he seem to be spectacularly bad at that one.

“If it’s any consolation, it took me a long time to figure out,” Joshua says. “Jeonghan and I had to meet Cheolie to take us from fuckbuddies to an actual relationship. That’s probably not the case for you, though.”

Mingyu shrugs. He doesn’t think he’s poly, but he doesn’t want to rule it out, either. Currently he’s just very focused on Jihoon. And their problem is of a different nature.

“I just… really wish he would talk to me,” he mumbles.

“God, he’s a dick,” Minghao sighs.

“Want us to stage an intervention?” Joshua asks.

Mingyu grimaces. “He’d kick all our asses.”

“We’re vampires.”

“It’s Jihoon.”

“Good point.”

They’ve finished the first bottle of wine and are halfway through the second when Joshua suddenly sits up. “Let’s go for a walk!”

“Ohhh yes, we can scope out people we would bite,” Minghao says. “Hypothetically, of course.”

Mingyu squints at the both of them. “You’re drunk.”

“A dirty lie,” Joshua says. “I don’t start being drunk until I’ve consumed like three bottles by myself.”

They do go out and wander along the busy twilight streets until Mingyu feels a little better. Minghao buys them all ridiculously expensive blood soft serves and they sit on a low wall separating an apartment building from the sidewalk licking sticky ice cream from their hands and laugh when one of Joshua’s fangs catches on the material of his hoodie.

Still, it’s lonely when Mingyu gets back to the empty apartment after Minghao and Joshua have to leave.

 

* * *

 

 

Jihoon comes back after the moon starts waning.

They both try to behave like nothing is wrong, like nothing happened, but they also skirt and circle around each other like two very wary animals.

Mingyu doesn’t want to ruin their roommate arrangement and their easy friendship, but he knows he might already be doing that with the way he’s behaving. There’s really no way around it… he’s going to have to tell him.

Somehow however, there’s never a good moment, and then he gets busy with work again.

 

When he comes home from the second day of music video shooting, his skin still burning and itching from too much exposure to the sun, Jihoon is in the living room, furiously typing something. He sees Mingyu come in and immediately snaps his Laptop shut, gets up to leave. Mingyu’s heart drops. He’s avoiding him again…

Then Jihoon stops, taking Mingyu in properly. He puts down his Laptop.

“What happened to you?”

Mingyu looks down at himself and catches sight of his forearms. The left just looks like it was badly sunburnt -- not much worse than a regular human – but the right has started blistering. Mingyu winces.

When he looks up again, Jihoon is standing right in front of him, hand hovering over his arm. “That’s second degree burns. What the fuck did they have you do?”

“Stand on a makeshift beach down by the Han river and pretend to be human?” Mingyu tries.

Jihoon scoffs. “Follow me.”

Mingyu obediently trails after him into the bathroom where Jihoon fishes out antibiotic ointment and some gauze from the cabinet.

“They should’ve had you wear something with long sleeves, at least. How’s your neck?” He stretches to catch a glimpse of the back of Mingyu’s neck.

“It’s fine,” Mingyu says hurriedly while Jihoon motions for him to sit down on the edge of the bath tub.

Jihoon cleans Mingyu’s arm with practiced motions – this is not the first, and probably won’t be the last time this has happened – and Mingyu watches quietly. He likes watching Jihoon work, even if it’s patching him up. It hurts a little, but the way his hands move is familiar and calming, and Mingyu loses himself in it a little until he realizes what he’s doing. And suddenly his heart hurts.

He feels like he’s taking advantage.

He has to tell him.

“I have to tell you something,” Mingyu says softly. He can barely hear his own voice.

Jihoon stops and he, ironically, looks a little like a deer caught in headlights for a moment before he straightens up and something defiant replaces the look of sheer terror in his eyes. “What’s up?”

And then Mingyu rushes it out without taking another breath, because otherwise he might never say it. “I really like you. Like… as more than a housemate. Romantically. And I’m sorry if I’ve been making things awkward or weird lately.”

Jihoon makes a face like Mingyu just put his bare hand through his chest and ripped out his heart. But it looks… resigned, rather than surprised.

“Mingyu,” Jihoon says. It sounds. Careful. Gentle? What the fuck. “Please believe me when I say you’re not the one who’s been making things awkward. That’s… on me.”

“What the fuck,” Mingyu says out loud.

“I…,” Jihoon grits his teeth. “I like you, too.” It sounds forced. “But I… can’t do this. We can’t be more than… roommates, or friends, or whatever, because...I’m not… an easy person.”

Relief floods through Mingyu, closely followed by disbelief. He tries his best not to scoff, or laugh. “I know that,” he says. “We’ve been living together for like ever. It’s not like I don’t notice if you don’t come out of your room for three days even though it’s nowhere near the full moon.”

Jihoon grimaces. “Don’t wanna put it on you, though,” he mumbles.

“You don’t,” Mingyu says, confused.

“I do,” Jihoon retorts immediately. “That thing after the last full moon? You make me feel… safe.” He scrunches up his nose as he says it. “But I don’t want to…” Here he’s evidently lost for words, which is a rare occurrence. “You’re too good for me. For anyone, really. I don’t think I can be what you’re looking for.”

“That’s bullshit,” Mingyu says. “And I’m not looking, because I found you a while ago.”

Jihoon groans and knocks his head back against the wall. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?” Mingyu asks. “Treat you like a person worthy of love?”

Jihoon levels him with a glare. “Fuck you.”

And then he turns around and leaves. Now _Mingyu_ feels like his heart was ripped out of his chest. Funny, that.

 

 

Mingyu ends up going over to Seungcheol’s place once it gets dark. He even texted Jihoon about it, lest he also have the idea to go over. Sharing friends is kind of… inconvenient in this situation, Mingyu finds.

He has a cool pack strapped to his arm over the gauze Jihoon applied, and every time he looks at it he feels even worse. It doesn’t even hurt that badly anymore – or maybe the pain in his chest is just worse.

Joshua takes one look at him when he opens the door and pulls him into a hug.

“Minghao’s on his way over,” he tells him.

Seungcheol’s not there – Joshua doesn’t tell him where he went, but Mingyu can guess he left to see Jihoon – but Jeonghan in is the kitchen, making dinner. Mingyu can see in his eyes that he thinks they’re being ridiculous, but he doesn’t say anything and Mingyu is grateful for that.

Joshua makes Mingyu sit down on the big sofa in the living room and takes the cool pack from him to swap out for a new one. “Sun exposure?” he asks and Mingyu nods, worthlessly.

“I’m gonna have a word with your agency,” Jeonghan says, bringing bowls of food over from the kitchen. “You have rights, you know.” Before Mingyu can even answer he’s gone again. He hears the fridge door open and close and then there’s the smell of blood. He wants to tell Jeonghan he doesn’t have to, but it’s probably already too late.

His stomach, the traitor, rumbles as if on command.

“Drink up,” Jeonghan tells him and presses the microwave-warm mug into his hand.

“Thanks,” Mingyu mumbles. He’s curled up on the couch now, which he knows must look ridiculous with his frame. It’s almost as if he was handed tea, or hot chocolate, and the way the mug warms his hand is almost reminiscent of being comforted that way in his childhood. Joshua settles in next to him and he watches as Jeonghan and Joshua eat together, and it only hurts a little.

Minghao sweeps in five minutes later with a bottle of wine “courtesy of my maker”, which definitely means it’s spiked with blood and has been in a basement for at least 200 years. It gets put away until Mingyu has finished his cup of hot blood and Minghao wiggles onto the couch between Joshua and Mingyu.

“What happened?” Joshua finally asks, nudging at Mingyu.

“I texted you what happened,” Mingyu mumbles.

“You texted us “i told him and now he hates me”,” Minghao says drily, “which is both very dramatic, so props to you, but I assume the latter part is also blatantly untrue.”

Mingyu sighs. “No. Maybe. I don’t know.”

“Well, you gave every possible answer to that question except “Yes”, so I think you’re good,” Jeonghan says and Joshua shoots him a _look_ that Mingyu catches despite his preoccupation.

“So…” Mingyu takes another swig of his blood. “I got home with my arms all fucked up because of the shoot, so he patched me up, and it made me feel guilty, so I told him about my feelings, and then he went all ‘I can’t do this. I’m not an easy person.’” Here he does a pretty good imitation of Jihoon, if he says so himself. “And I tried to tell him that’s not true and I know him, but he wouldn’t listen, and then he just… walked out. Barricaded himself in his room.”

“That dumbass,” Jeonghan says.

“What do you mean it made you feel guilty?” Joshua asks.

“You should have just kissed him,” Minghao says.

Mingyu answers by draining the rest of his mug and Jeonghan takes that as a sign to open the first bottle of wine for them.

 

 

Seungcheol gets back at dawn, right as the others are trying to coax Mingyu into bed.

They’re all slightly drunk, but only slightly, because vampires can’t get smashed, and Jeonghan had the good sense to not get blackout drunk – even though he complained about it at length. Still, the three of them were having trouble maneuvering themselves and also Mingyu into the bedroom and are somehow stuck in the doorway, giggling helplessly.

Upon seeing this, Seungcheol sighs. “I guess I’ll be sleeping in the guest room.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Jeonghan says. “We got this huge bed for a reason.”

“Yeah, because Shua couldn’t keep his hands off Minghao,” Mingyu mumbles, his eyes half-closed.

“Ohhhh,” Minghao whoops. “Drunk Mingyu is wild.”

“Nah, just honest,” Joshua sighs.

They do all end up piling into the big bed together (after Seungcheol made them all brush their teeth. Very motherly. It’s weird. Or maybe it’s just weird because Mingyu’s in love, and drunk, and possibly heartbroken.) Mingyu attempts to smother himself with a pillow but fails, both because his attempt is rather lackluster and because he doesn’t need to breathe.

Joshua pulls it away from him gently and puts it under his head instead. “It’s not the end of the world.”

“We literally live together,” Mingyu mumbles. “I don’t want to lose him.”

“You won’t,” Seungcheol says, running a hand over his hair soothingly. “Believe me, he doesn’t want to lose you, either.”

And this, at least, Mingyu believes. Because Seungcheol was just with Jihoon, and he doesn’t know what they talked about, but he knows Seungcheol wouldn’t lie to him. It’s a little comforting, even though it still doesn’t give him much clarity.

He hums and snuggles into the pillow. Sungcheol is still petting his hair and his legs are tangled with Minghao’s. He feels a little better.

“He’s so upset with himself,” he hears Seungcheol say. It’s dim and muted, and he might be dreaming, because no matter how hard he tries to focus on the words, the voices seem drifting and far away.

“He should be,” Jeonghan says. “No, listen, of course I don’t want him to be unhappy, but he should really consider how this is affecting Mingyu.”

“He tried to protect him and now they’re both hurting.”

“Sounds like someone I know…”

 

Mingyu wakes up with Joshua’s hand somehow on his face and Seungcheol’s foot on his lower back, because Seungcheol is upside down on the bed.

He groans and sits up as the memories from last night come flooding back. A look at the alarm clock on the nightstand tells him it’s almost 3pm. He carefully extracts himself from the three boys he’s sandwiched between. Jeonghan is nowhere to be seen.

The mystery is solved a minute later, when Mingyu carefully pads into the kitchen and finds Jeonghan fiddling with the dishwasher.

“Cleaning up?” he asks.

Jeonghan flinches. “Jesus! Walk louder, please.” He turns on the dishwasher and then gets a clean mug out for Mingyu.

“Still not used to it?” Mingyu asks as he watches Jeonghan turn on the fancy coffee maker.

“Joshua makes a conscious effort not to scare me to death all the time,” Jeonghan says. “And Cheol couldn’t be quiet if he tried.”

Seungcheol emerges from the bedroom twenty minutes later. He accepts coffee from Jeonghan with a sigh.

“I’m glad it’s Saturday.”

“I’m really sorry,” Mingyu says.

“Nonsense,” Jeonghan says. “We would have just called out of work if it wasn’t the weekend. My colleagues are driving me up the wall anyway.”

Mingyu can’t tell if it’s a lie or not, but it makes him smile either way.

“I can’t believe the vampires are sleeping long again,” Jeonghan sighs after a moment of quiet. “Do y’all even need that much sleep?”

Mingyu just shrugs.

They have a weird breakfast mixture of rice and kimchi and cereal. Seungcheol and Jeonghan go for the traditional choice while the vampires stay with cereal. Food is… odd. Still, Mingyu accepts a bowl of rice after he finishes his cereal. He’s hungry, somehow, despite yesterday’s blood. Maybe he’s just craving some familiarity and warmth, and rice usually provides that.

“I should get home,” Mingyu says after he helps Jeonghan clear the table.

“Are you sure?” Joshua asks.

“Will you be okay?” Minghao asks.

Mingyu shrugs. “It’s my home, too. We can’t avoid each other forever.”

Maybe it was just one bad night and now that they know where they stand, things will get better.

 

* * *

 

 

Things do not, in fact, get better, and if Mingyu thought they were awkward before, that’s nothing compared to now. It’s downright painful.

Jihoon doesn’t talk to him except when it’s strictly necessary, but even then they communicate mostly through shopping lists that they keep adding things to. It’s sad, but Mingyu gets a little thrill whenever he sees “toilet paper” or “pasta” in Jihoon’s handwriting on a note in the kitchen.

Whenever Mingyu comes home, Jihoon is fast asleep, and he tells himself that they’re both busy. His agency has been piling work on him, and the comeback for the girl group Jihoon has been working with is coming up.

Mingyu joins a proper gym just so he has somewhere to go. He’s determined not to stay over at their friends’ places, both because it makes things harder for them and because he _has_ a place to live, and he knows he shouldn’t flee his own home.

He’s never stress cleaned so much in his life.

He doesn’t think Jihoon is actively working on moving out, and he himself certainly isn’t. He’s stubborn, and he’s hoping Jihoon will come around, but right now their situation is almost unbearable.

Still, a week passes, and then two, his arms heal and the burning in his chest slowly turns into a dull ache, and he – impossibly – becomes used to the situation. To the silence. To the absence of Jihoon in their shared spaces. To only hearing him puttering around during daylight hours when he thinks Mingyu is asleep.

 

 

His big distraction comes when his agency calls him to tell him that Gucci want to book him. They have a meeting for the day after tomorrow for him to look at the contract and sign.

(He’s also getting compensation money for the sun injury incident at the music video shoot and his agency has promised to start putting clauses into his contracts not to have him work in direct sunlight for more than an hour without breaks.)

He flutters around the apartment anxiously for a full day and night, too keyed up to sleep, but unable to call any of his friends in fear of jinxing it at the last minute.

He wishes he could tell Jihoon.

Even more so he wishes Jihoon would notice and ask, but Jihoon is locked away in his room at almost all times, and Mingyu knows better than to go and knock.

Finally the night of the meeting arrives. Mingyu hates having to pick an outfit by himself, too used to being able to just ask Jihoon for his opinion or send a quick selfie to his friends. But this feels too monumental; he’s ready to burst at any moment even though it’s just a formality to over the contract, he already has it in the bag.

He settles on one of his nicest, most expensive shirts finally, and a pair of nice slacks that Jihoon once remarked “make him look like he never skips leg day”. He’s careful to put all the other clothes he considered and then discarded back into his closet before he leaves.

A last look in the mirror to fix his hair before he’s out the door.

 

 

The meeting really is just there for everyone to say how excited they are to work with each other. (As if it’s not super surreal to hear a Gucci representative say that to him. What the hell.) They go over the changes in the contract; inclusion of his clause for not working in too much sunlight and a slight adjustment of numbers. They even sent one of their vampire employees and Mingyu is… well, he’s overwhelmed.

It doesn’t even sink in when he’s putting the pen to paper and signing his name under the contract. Doesn’t sink in when he’s shaking hands with them for the second time. Doesn’t sink in until he’s out of the building and in the taxi that is supposed to take him home.

And there’s only one person he wants to tell.

It doesn’t matter that they’ve barely talked for two weeks. It doesn’t matter that Jihoon doesn’t want him, that Mingyu can’t have him. It doesn’t matter that it’s almost five in the morning and Jihoon should be asleep.

Mingyu’s barely through the door before he shouts “Hyung!” No answer. “Jihoon!” He knows he’s there, his shoes are there, there was the sound of piano playing from his room that ceased the moment Mingyu walked in. “JIHOONIE!”

“What?!” It sounds annoyed, but only on the surface, Mingyu can hear the curiosity underneath, and also something that’s… scared and hopeful and confused.

“I got the Gucci job!”

There’s the sound of something falling and then Jihoon wrenches open his door. They stare at each other from opposite ends of the hallway and then Jihoon is stalking forward, steps and features decidedly wolfish.

“You did it,” he says, voice rough.

Mingyu can only nod. It feels like all air has been knocked out of his lungs as he looks Jihoon in the eyes. Eyes that have started transforming at the edges.

“I’m so proud of you.” It comes out in almost a growl, in that delicious gravelly voice Jihoon gets when he’s somewhere on the verge of his transformation. It sends shivers down Mingyu’s spine. And then Jihoon is reaching up to loop his arms around Mingyu’s neck, to drag him down, to crash their mouths together and Mingyu kisses him back, frantic, desperate and so fucking happy.

Mingyu lifts him up, one arm underneath his ass to support him, the other cupping his face.

“Fuck,” Jihoon groans and bites at Mingyu’s lip. Mingyu dives right back in and grins against Jihoon’s mouth. He’s wanted, imagined, _dreamed_ about doing this for such a long time, and it’s exactly as satisfying as he thought it would be.

He licks into Jihoon’s mouth, a little uncoordinated, he just _wants_ , but Jihoon reciprocates with the same kind of enthusiasm.

Mingyu walks backward until his legs hit the side of the couch and he just lets himself fall onto it lengthwise. Jihoon shrieks but lands on top of him anyway and Mingyu has to laugh.

“I can’t believe you did that,” Jihoon says, panting, and pushes himself up with both hands on Mingyu’s chest.

“Can you blame me?” Mingyu asks, grin still wide and he’s very aware of his fangs being on display, “I’ve been wanting to do that forever.”

Jihoon sucks in air and stifles a groan, gaze flickering from Mingyu’s teeth to his eyes and back. “You can’t just say that. Or do that.”

“Hmm...” Mingyu hums. “That’s disappointing, because I was looking forward to doing it a lot.”

“Fuck,” Jihoon mumbles breathlessly. “Okay, never listen to me again.” Then he bends down and kisses Mingyu again. It’s less frantic than it was before but no less heated. He cups Mingyu’s face and while his thumbs stroke Mingyu’s cheeks he buries the rest of his fingers in Mingyu’s hair. Mingyu can feel Jihoon’s nails grow into claws and moans into Jihoon’s mouth.

“Shit. You’re so beautiful,” Jihoon says and he’s still so close that Mingyu can feel the movement of his lips against his. “So hot.”

Mingyu pants against him, chases his mouth. He wants, _needs_ , more. And Jihoon seems willing to give it to him.

But then a thought flits into Mingyu’s awareness and he moves one of his hands from where it snuck under Jihoon’s shirt to put it on his chest and hold him back, push him lightly so they separate. “Hold up.”

Jihoon blinks down at him and lets go of his head. “What’s up?” He’s very obviously trying to keep his expression neutral but Mingyu can see the concern. “You want to stop?”

“No.” Mingyu shakes his head and sits up a little. “I just… this isn’t just a one time thing, right? This isn’t just because we have some pent up emotions or whatever.”

Now Jihoon grimaces openly but finally he, too, shakes his head. “No, it isn’t. I… want this. I want you. Not just for today.”

Mingyu lets out a shaky breath, relief coursing through. “Oh. Good.”

They stare at each other for a moment longer before Jihoon grins wickedly. Then he rips Mingyu’s shirt open, tearing the buttons clean off.

“Hey!” Mingyu complains. “That was one of my expensive ones.”

“I’ll buy you a new one. Hell, you’ll be able to buy one yourself with all your fancy Gucci money. Maybe they’ll give you one for free.”

“Oh shit,” Mingyu breathes, internally already seeing himself head to toe in Gucci.

“Horny for Gucci, aren’t we?” Jihoon mumbles, although the comical effect of it is somewhat lessened by his hands traveling up his torso to slip the shirt off his shoulders. His fingers are hot against Mingyu’s cold skin.

“You know I’m a Balenciaga guy,” Mingyu says, trying – and failing – to keep his composure as Jihoon throws his shirt across the room, “but I’ll get you some goods if I can.”

“That’s hot.”

“Now who’s horny for Gucci?”

Jihoon grimaces. “Okay, stop saying that.”

Mingyu decides not to bring up that it was Jihoon who said it first. Instead he’s overcome by a wave of misplaced fondness. Of course a silly _joke_ would make him feel all soft for Jihoon.

“I missed you,” Mingyu says, unable to hold in the sentiment, looking Jihoon square in the face. He sees his eyes widen, hears his heartbeat quicken even more. The blush on his cheeks deepens and then Jihoon is hiding his face in Mingyu’s bare shoulder.

“Missed you too...”

Mingyu laughs. “What was that?”

“You have super-hearing,” Jihoon grumbles, and Mingyu can feel his lips moving against his skin, “you heard me.”

He doesn’t need to push his luck by asking again. He heard it loud and clear, and he knows Jihoon meant it. He files it away for later, an incentive for them to talk about, well, everything.

“Stop talking.” Jihoon moves his head lower, wiggles in his lap a little and pushes at his shoulders so Mingyu will lean back. Mingyu thinks he knows where this is leading and he goes along willingly. Jihoon kisses his way down from Mingyu’s shoulder to his navel, lips only barely grazing his left nipple. Mingyu draws in a sharp breath through his mouth. Jihoon thumbs the waistband of the nice slacks Mingyu wore for the meeting with the Gucci people, but doesn’t go any further than that.

Distraction successful.

Mingyu groans. “You tease, what the hell.”

Jihoon straightens up and grins at him, all sharp teeth and that both calls for revenge and reminds Mingyu of something.

He grabs hold of Jihoon’s over-sized shirt and pulls it up over his head. The shirt hasn’t even landed on the floor yet by the time Mingyu is running his hands all over Jihoon’s skin. His soft arms. The pale expanse of his soft tummy. He can’t resist and runs his thumb over the nipple piercing Jihoon got last winter, too. Jihoon shivers.

“Are my hands too cold?”

Jihoon shakes his head. “They were at first but they’ve warmed up now.” Good shivers then.

Mingyu runs a finger up Jihoon’s arm, over his shoulder and along his neck where he can hear, see, feel his thunderous pulse. He licks his lips. “Can I…?” He doesn’t dare finish the question, didn’t even think he would get this far, never imagined even in his wildest dreams.

“Do it,” Jihoon says, growls even, and Mingyu doesn’t have to be told twice before he sinks his fangs into the juncture of Jihoon’s neck. Jihoon gasps and Mingyu isn’t sure if it’s in pain or pleasure, but he doesn’t tell him to stop, only tightens his grip on his hips.

When Mingyu gets the first taste of Jihoon’s blood, it’s so much better than he imagined.

Jihoon tastes heavenly and when Mingyu sucks on his neck a little more insistently, he arches his back, muscles straining against Mingyu’s hand splayed across his back, and moans. Mingyu grins against his skin.

(The good thing about this? No cross-supernatural being turning. Mingyu couldn’t turn Jihoon into a vampire even if he tried, much less accidentally.)

Mingyu licks over the wound and watches with fascination as the holes disappear.

“Leave the next one,” Jihoon says, right next to his ear, sending shivers up and down Mingyu’s spine.

“Fuck. Okay. Yeah.”

He looks up and catches a glimpse of his reflection in the tv screen opposite the sofa. He looks like a wreck. His hair is a mess, and the red of his eyes is visible even in the dark tint of the screen.

Jihoon’s ears are fully wolf now but nothing else about him has turned except for his teeth and nails.

“You don’t have to hold back either,” Mingyu tells him.

Jihoon freezes a little and looks at him in consideration. It seems… cautious. Like he’s deliberating, weighing the pros and cons of something bigger inside.

“Come on.” Mingyu mouths at the skin he just healed. He doesn’t know what’s holding Jihoon back, but he can feel the pent up tension in every part of his body he touches. Mingyu trails kisses up Jihoon’s neck and his jaw before kissing him, open mouthed and determined. He bites down on Jihoon’s lower lip ever so slightly, careful to only let his fangs graze him the slightest amount.

Jihoon digs his nails – claws – into Mingyu’s back and _scratches_. The pain is exquisite. He knows it’ll fade almost instantly, heal within a day or two, far too quickly, but for the moment he enjoys the burn.

Mingyu sneaks his hands under the loose elastic of Jihoon’s sweatpants and squeezes his ass. Jihoon pants against him, breath hot on his cold skin.

“Hey, not that I’m not super into this, but can we move this to like… an actual bed?” Mingyu asks.

“Ugh,” Jihoon makes. “I haven’t changed my sheets in like a month.”

Mingyu snorts. “Hot.”

Jihoon scratches along his back again. “Shut up, brat.”

“Do you want to fuck in my bed or not?” Mingyu bares his fangs a little, but he’s already trying to get his feet under him to get up. It’s a little harder to lift Jihoon from a sitting position, but he manages.

“Yah! Let me down! I can walk.”

“Nope, carry all the way.”

Jihoon takes his revenge by digging his nails into Mingyu where he’s hanging onto him and also somehow managing to press his hips as close to him as possible so his erection is pressed against Mingyu’s stomach. Mingyu’s step falters. Jihoon smirks at him.

Mingyu readjusts his arms and then, in one swift motion, throws Jihoon over his shoulder instead, slapping his ass for good measure.

He’s a little gentler when they actually reach his room, but he still throws Jihoon onto his bed with enough force to knock the wind out of him. But Jihoon catches himself quickly, looking up at Mingyu with hooded eyes and Mingyu has to take a deep steadying breath.

Then he crawls onto the bed after Jihoon, hooks his fingers into the waistband of Jihoon’s pants with intent this time, and pulls.

 

 

 

They’re lying in bed after and Mingyu is running his hands through Jihoon’s hair. Jihoon pushes his head into the touch, so Mingyu absentmindedly scratches behind Jihoon’s ears. The effect is _immediate_.

A whine escapes Jihoon’s throat and he pushes into the touch, tail growing and thumping against the mattress.

Mingyu giggles. Jihoon blinks, realizes what he’s done and immediately looks _mortified_.

“Oh no,” he mumbles.

“This is the most adorable thing you’ve ever done,” Mingyu says, not moving his hand from Jihoon’s ear.

“I did not need you to find this out,” Jihoon says, but Mingyu can hear and feel his heart rate settling back down, and then he’s once again pushing back into the touch. “You already have enough blackmail material on me for two lifetimes.”

“What’s one more thing, then,” Mingyu says, running his fingers over one silky ear.

Jihoon hums contentedly, immediately forgetting about his argument entirely.

They stay like that for a while, until Jihoon grows restless, kicking his legs a little.

“I’m thirsty,” he mumbles finally.

“Ah,” Mingyu makes, “sorry.”

Jihoon frowns up at him. “What the hell are you apologizing for?”

“Well,” Mingyu says and ghosts his fingers over the bite marks on Jihoon’s neck and thighs. “I drank your blood, even if it’s just a little, so that probably makes it worse.”

“Dramatic much.” Jihoon rolls his eyes. “But if you feel so bad you can go get me something to drink. Since _you’re_ not thirsty anymore, anyway.” He accentuates his words with a flick of his fingers against Mingyu’s cheek.

Mingyu mimes biting his finger but gets up anyway to get Jihoon some water.

 

He catches sight of himself in the hallway mirror as he walks past.

There’s scratch marks on his left forearm and on his shoulder leading down to his back that he’s going to have to explain to the director and make-up artist of the shoot he has tomorrow. He’ll just say his dog got too overexcited. The thought makes him grin.

He fills a glass of water and then idly wonders where his phone ended up.

He finds it on the couch where it must have slipped out of his pocket among all the making out. Phone clutched he wanders back into the kitchen and texts Wonwoo and Minghao while he rummages around the cabinets.

 **mingyu, 8:56am**  
GUESS WHAT

 **minghao,** **8** **:** **56** **am**  
YOU GOT THE GUCCI JOB?

 **mingyu,** **8** **:** **57** **am**  
YES  
BUT ALSO  
GUESS WHAT ELSE HAPPENED WHEN I CAME HOME WITH THE GOOD NEWS

 **minghao,** **8** **:** **58** **am**  
OH FUCK DID HE KISS YOU

 **mingyu,** **8** **:** **58** **am**  
EVEN BETTER

 **minghao, 9:0** **1** **am**  
BRUH  
i’m calling the squad rn  
i think cheol is crying  
also have u told wonwoo

Mingyu is finally successful in finding Jihoon’s newest hiding place for the chocolate (behind the old mugs on the third shelf) and clutches both the chocolate bar and the glass of water in one hand.

 **mingyu, 9:0** **2** **am**  
he’s still asleep but I texted him  
i’m gonna go back to the bedroom

 **minghao, 9:04am**  
disgustingly domestic already  
or disgustingly thirsty  
both?

 **minghao, 9:10am**  
i’m so happy for you  
also congrats

He returns to the bedroom with his loot and wrinkles his nose a little at the smell in the room. He hands Jihoon the glass, drops the chocolate on the bed and goes to open the window.

“Hey, I have something I’m curious about,” he says then.

Jihoon hums and takes a big gulp of his water but eyes him a little warily. “What is it?”

“That one time during the full moon…” Mingyu crawls back into bed, picks up the chocolate and settles next to Jihoon. “When you ended up in my bed. What… happened?”

“I uh,” Jihoon scrunches up his face. “I get nightmares when I’m on the meds. Stuff about my friends dying and shit and then I have to… make sure they’re safe? Somehow? And that time I had a dream you had gotten shot – with silver – and so I came to make sure it had really only been a dream, but you know, hazy drug brain thought it was a good idea to cuddle. Also you… I’ve said this before, but you make me feel safe.”

“Oh,” Mingyu makes. He looks at Jihoon for a moment and then opens his arms wide. Jihoon sighs and inches closer. Mingyu closes his arms around him and opens the chocolate. “Thank you. For trusting me.”

“You better give me some of that chocolate.”

Mingyu breaks off a piece of chocolate and holds it up to Jihoon’s mouth obediently. Jihoon closes his lips around it, catching the tips of Mingyu’s fingers as he goes.

“I didn’t mind, by the way,” he says while Jihoon chews. “That you came to sleep with me. I know I told you already, but I just want to make it clear again.”

“I know,” Jihoon says. “I know it was just my head being an asshole, that it was all just my mind...”

“I know,” Mingyu echoes, “it’s okay.”

They’re quiet for a while, but Mingyu feels content in the knowledge that Jihoon isn’t going to run away, even if he still doesn’t know why he did it in the first place.

Finally, Mingyu speaks again, carefully skirting the issue, trying to just put a finger on it without spooking Jihoon. “Wasn’t staying with Soonyoung dangerous?”

“Eh, not really. For all their fucked up side effects, the meds are really effective. I wouldn’t have gone otherwise.”

Mingyu wonders how much internal debating Jihoon had to do. Couldn’t go to Seungcheol, because two werewolves in the same household on the full moon was a bad gamble at any rate. Going to Soonyoung was less dangerous, especially with meds and restraints, but still not without risk. Mingyu opens his mouth to ask how that conversation went and then closes it again, thinking better of it. It still stings a little that Jihoon didn’t want to – couldn’t? – stay with him, and he hopes that he’ll grow to understand it at some point.

They share the chocolate, and then Mingyu runs his hand through Jihoon’s hair until he falls asleep. Mingyu doesn’t, because he doesn’t have to, doesn’t want to, so he just watches him as he sleeps.

 

When Jihoon finally opens his eyes again it’s early afternoon, the sun starting to dip towards the horizon, judging from the soft rays filtering in through Mingyu’s mostly drawn curtains. “Hey,” Mingyu says and smiles.

“Hey,” Jihoon echoes, voice heavy from sleep.

It’s the most beautiful Mingyu has ever heard. The last time Jihoon slept decidedly did not go like this, and for a moment Mingyu is overwhelmed by a flashback, sees Jihoon scrambling out of the bed, panic radiating off of him in waves. Then the memory is gone and all there is is _Jihoon_. Soft and barely awake and still smelling like sleep.

Mingyu leans forward and presses a chaste kiss to his lips, smiling. The fond feeling in his chest grows.

Still, it has him thinking about Jihoon staying with Soonyoung again, and then the scene in the bathroom, and he grinds his teeth a little as he leans back. He sits up against the headboard and stares at the opposite wall for a moment, unsure

“Hey,” he mumbles then. “Not to… ruin your morning or anything, but… why did you… not want me, weeks ago?”

Jihoon whips his head around so quickly that it has to hurt. “Don’t ever think that,” he says, a little breathless. “God, I’ve wanted you so badly for months… as evidenced by uh, this...” He motions at the crumpled sheets around them. “Fuck… I’m really sorry that I made you think that. I was just scared of hurting you, you know?”

Mingyu blinks at him. Shakes his head. “You could never hurt me.”

“You may have like fucking steel skin or whatever, but I can still hurt you both physically and mentally,” Jihoon sighs. “Pretty sure I already have.”

“It happens,” Mingyu says. “Like, I’m not going to pretend I wasn’t hurt, but I’m sure you had your reasons. The only thing you need to do is try and explain yourself a little better. We all make mistakes.”

“Oh, I’m very good at those...”

Mingyu inches closer and runs his hand through Jihoon’s hair. “What happened?”

“I uh… scratched the first guy I dated after I turned,” Jihoon says quietly, voice carefully even. “He didn’t turn, I was too young yet, but he didn’t want anything to do with me after.”

“Oh,” Mingyu makes. “Oh, Jihoonie, I’m so sorry.”

“Why are you the one apologizing, what the fuck.” Jihoon turns to face him properly and scowls and Mingyu realises with horror that there are tears in his eyes. “It was my mistake, you know. I could have turned him, or killed him.”

“A mistake you can’t make with me,” Mingyu says gently. He lifts his free hand and taps the scratches on his back and shoulder. “Vampire, remember?”

“Still, there’s plenty of other ways for me to fuck this up.”

“For someone so focused you’re really good at overthinking things, huh?” Mingyu puts a finger to Jihoon’s temple and runs it through the soft hairs over his ear. “I already told you I’m in, whatever happens.”

Jihoon shrugs. “It’s part of always being two steps ahead.”

“Aw, not ten?”

“I’m not Shikamaru!”

“Eh, no, if anything you’re Akamaru.” Mingyu is barely suppressing a grin at this point.

Jihoon gasps. “Oh, I see how it is. I’m the dog, because...” He motions down at himself.

“Because you’re cute and tiny, exactly.”

“Akamaru grows up to be huge, thanks.”

Mingyu sighs. “Babe, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I don’t think you’re going to grow anymore.”

“I know,” Jihoon hisses, “I was just pointing out that your comparison doesn’t make sense in that context!”

Mingyu laughs properly now. It’s so easy to provoke Jihoon, he knows exactly which buttons to push, and honestly, he’s missed this, too.

He bites at Jihoon’s shoulder playfully instead of continuing the argument – no fangs this time, he’s careful not to break the skin, but when he pulls away there’s a red mark anyway.

“I didn’t even bite hard,” he muses, running his fingers over the small indents his teeth left. “You’re so… fair.”

Jihoon snorts. “Jealous, Mr Vampire?” He cranes his neck to see the mark. “I’m not even that light, I just bruise easily.”

Mingyu clears his throat.

“What?” Jihoon raises a perfectly sculpted eyebrow – courtesy of frequent outings with Jeonghan.

“That’s hot,” Mingyu says.

Jihoon snorts and hauls himself up, swinging his leg across Mingyu’s lap. “Is it now?” Mingyu blinks up at him and watches as Jihoon’s ears grow and turn decidedly furry. Then his tail knocks against Mingyu’s legs. “How about this?”

“Fuck.” Mingyu groans. One of his hands comes to rest on Jihoon’s waist, the other cups one of his ears and he can feel it twitch against his palm, can feel the skin turn hotter as blood rushes to the point of contact.

He can sense the contained strength humming in Jihoon’s small body. He could kill a regular human with a simple flick of his wrist, one tightening of his jaws. And more importantly, he could hurt Mingyu if he really wanted to, if he tried, but he _doesn’t_ , and even the thought excites Mingyu.

“You’re so hot,” he says.

Jihoon grins and runs one sharp claw over Mingyu’s chest. “Mhm, yeah? You gonna bite me properly again?”

“Maybe,” Mingyu says and then immediately does so.

 

The spend the rest of the day like this, basking in the revelation that maybe they can have this after all, letting themselves explore; no longer desperate and hurried but rather slow, steady, and with an amount of softness – interspersed between all the biting and scratching – that Mingyu isn’t even pretending he isn’t enjoying.

He hasn’t forgotten about the pain and the pining, but it seems a lifetime away now, a funny story to tell new friends someday.

 

* * *

 

 

The Gucci shoot goes well, and he does get to keep two of the shirts.

 

The song Jihoon made for House of Aura becomes an instant hit and Mingyu is quietly convinced both he and Soonyoung will be up for awards at the end of the year.

 

 

Everyone always gets them wrong, but from now on Mingyu can say, “Actually, my boyfriend is the werewolf.” and get a kick out of people’s reactions.

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/systaemupdate), [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/luffylaws) or [tumblr](https://leiathelight.tumblr.com) :*
> 
> [promo tweet](https://twitter.com/luffylaws/status/1061678399637389314) if you wanna rt


End file.
